The Colourist Are Stamping Their Passport to Rockstardom at Coachella

Communication between band members is one of the most important yet often-overlooked aspects of being in a band. Just ask the Colourist's Adam Castilla and Maya Tuttle. Their previous outfit, Paper Thin Walls, won a contest to play at a Led Zeppelin after-party in London in 2007. It sounded great in theory, but when Tuttle forgot to inform the band she entered them in the contest, it caused some minor problems closer to the date.

"We found out about the Led Zeppelin show a week before it happened," singer/guitarist Castilla recalls. "I didn't have a passport, so I had to get one in literally 24 hours and it cost $500. If nothing else, when we formed this band, we made sure everyone had a passport ready to go."

After Paper Thin Walls broke up, Castilla and Tuttle soldiered on, eventually adding Castilla's friends Justin Wagner and Kollin Johannsen to become the Colourist. Within minutes of meeting them, their goofball chemistry is palpable. Sitting across from the quartet, we're surrounded by high-end recording equipment, multiple guitars and scratched-off lottery tickets, the band's guilty pleasure. They're smiling and giddy, hardly able to contain their excitement.

"We've all been friends, and it's not like one of those things where you're set up with random musicians to start some music group," Castilla says. "We always have a good time together, in and out of the studio."

After five long months of recording in Eagle Rock, the Costa Mesa-based outfit is putting the finishing touches on their debut album. The 14 new songs (11 of them are making the album) are a departure from what most ardent OC supporters have heard. Recently, the band gave a glimpse of what's to come when they posted "Little Games" to their website.

Like plenty of successful bands, the Colourist have a knack for creating tunes that reflect on frustration inside an upbeat indie-pop framework. "All of our songs are like that; they have darker meanings, but they're about pushing through and having happy endings," Castilla says.

After years playing shows in Orange County, the band caught the attention of reps from a handful of major labels during a residency at Los Angeles' Bootleg Theater, where their live shows hit a peak.

"Once we played those shows, we started getting a cool reaction," Castilla says. "It got bigger and bigger every week."